Debates held in Plenary and Committee sessions during late March and early April
Welsh Conservatives abstain in Senedd CME Database Pilot Regulations vote
Agenda item 7 of the Senedd Plenary session [video] on Tuesday 1 April was the Children Act 2004 (Children Missing Education Database) (Pilot) (Wales) Regulations 2025.
Cabinet Secretary for Education Lynne Neagle moved the motion that the above Regulations be approved.
She announced that the pilot would begin on 8 April and run for a year, and went on to provide factual information about the scheme:
“When local authorities receive the information from their local health board, they will review and compare the one-off data set with their existing data to identify children previously not known to them and those children where the suitability of education is not known. Local authorities will then follow up with those families to make sure that every child is in receipt of a suitable education. An independent evaluation will test the effectiveness of the database and inform our next steps.”
Home educating parents will find it hard to credit her assertion that,
“these arrangements are not about home education and they are completely separate to the provisions in the UK Government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill – the two should not be conflated.”
Neagle justified the need for a CME database, calling it “simply a mechanism to help local authorities to undertake their existing duties.” She then thanked the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee [LJCC] for its careful scrutiny of the Regulations, and asked Members to approve them.
Next, LJCC Chair Mike Hedges (Lab) spoke to three technical reporting points, “all of which highlight matters that we consider need further explanation.”
He was followed by Natasha Ashgar, (Conservative, South Wales East), who advocated strongly for the importance of getting the balance right, ensuring that people are “listened to and engaged with.”
She was clearly well aware from the home educators who had contacted her that
“these proposals, mixed with the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill… have sparked a lot of concern, rang[ing]from the proposed data sharing being a violation of privacy to the plans putting extra pressure on families who home educate their children. Every step must be taken to make sure we do not stigmatise or unduly burden parents who have made a positive and legitimate choice to home educate their children.”
Ashgar then pressed for greater clarity about potential and unnecessary duplication of databases and told Neagle in no uncertain terms that Welsh Conservatives are “pro parental choice.” Yes, safeguarding was paramount, but balance was needed, so as not to “alienate” home educators and those impacted by these regulations:
“That’s why, Cabinet Secretary, the Welsh Conservative group will be abstaining on these regulations this afternoon.”
Sam Rowlands (Conservative, North Wales) came straight in on the same wicket, with the added credentials of having been home educated himself as a young person.
In full agreement that safeguarding should be a top priority, he called out the simplistic notion that “those who would elect to inform a local authority are those being home educated and those, perhaps, not electing to inform a local authority are those children missing education.” In actual fact, he said, “many of those children deemed to be missing education will actually be home educated.” Because, importantly, “At the moment, it’s parental choice as to whether they involve the local authority in that information or not.”
Rowlands went on to address the need to improve relationships between home educating families and local authorities, where potential for suspicion or hostility has been the case for years.
After noting the possible negative impact of requiring health boards to share information, he pressed hard on issues around privacy and security of children’s information, reminding Members of “the challenges around data sharing across public bodies here in Wales.” He closed by urging the Cabinet Secretary to “walk really sensitively through this, recognising there are often very serious reasons why parents choose to educate their children at home or in different circumstances.”
Neagle then had opportunity to respond. Her memory, or what she had been told about the reality of the situation, seemed to have changed with time. Yes, there was extensive consultation. Yes, home educators were involved. But the consultation was ‘supported’ – really…? Somehow she was convinced of almost the exact opposite. Similarly, she was of the view that the risk of families choosing not to engage with health services due to data-sharing was ‘low,’ and reassured herself and her listeners that more data to compare and analyse would somehow be a protective factor.
And the outcome of the vote..? The Regulations were approved: For: 41, Against: 0, Abstain: 15.
• • • • •
Always read the small print
Documents laid before Senedd Cymru prior to the above debate included the Regulations themselves and an Explanatory Memorandum. The latter was prepared by the Education Directorate and had been signed off by Cabinet Secretary Lynne Neagle on 26 March with the following Declaration:
“In my view, this Explanatory Memorandum gives a fair and reasonable view of the expected impact of The Children Act 2004 (Children Missing Education Database) (Pilot) (Wales) Regulations 2025.
I am satisfied that the benefits justify the likely costs.”
Point 2 addresses matters of special interest to the LJC Committee, and includes the following information:
“The CME database arrangements will be supported by a second set of Regulations – the Education (Information about Children in Independent Schools) (Pilot) (Wales) Regulations 2025 (“the information regulations”). The information regulations follow the negative procedure and place a requirement on proprietors of independent schools in Wales to provide basic information (child’s name, address and date of birth) about children on roll with them, to the local authority where the child is ordinarily resident.”
Further, point 3 recognises the joint nature of these provisions:
“Section 29(12) of the 2004 Act requires that regulations made under sub-section (1)(a) and (5) require the Secretary of State’s consent. The UK Government’s Secretary of State for Education has provided her consent to the Welsh Ministers to make the database regulations, for pilot purposes.”
Point 4 is headed Purpose and Intended effect of the legislation. It reinforces the notion that EHE children who are unknown to LA’s are considered to be missing education. Despite the discriminatory nature of this categorisation, the clear explanation of the only way an ‘EHE’ child can be moved out of the ‘CME’ category is useful for home educating parents to actually have in writing, for reference purposes.
“‘CME’ are children who are not on roll at school, not in education other than at school (EOTAS), and children who are reported to be electively home-educated (EHE) but where the local authority has not determined that they are in receipt of a suitable education. CME does not include children who are EHE where the local authority has determined that the education at home is suitable, and it does not include children who are on roll at school but do not attend regularly.” [Emphasis added]
The remainder of the document comprises a Regulatory Impact Assessment for the CME Database proposals. This outlines the context, costs, benefits and disbenefits of two options, summarised as follows on page 8:
“Option 1 – Continue the status quo – i.e. do nothing / do the minimum
Option 2 – Make regulations to (a) require each individual local authority to establish a database of compulsory school age children in their area who may be missing education, and (b) require local health boards to share specific data with local authorities. This will allow local authorities to identify children known to health services but who are currently not known to the LA. This is the preferred option.” [Emphasis original]
The importance of reading the small print should be apparent, in view of the Cabinet Secretary’s declaration that the document presents a fair and reasonable view of the expected impact of the Regulations.
• • • • •
Children, Young People and Education Committee [CYPEC] meeting
As usual, the Agenda and relevant Papers to Note for the meeting held on Wednesday 2 April had been circulated in advance for members’ perusal.
One item of interest in the above bundle is a letter related to Agenda item 4.1 (on p. 88-87) sent on 21 March from LJCC Chair Mike Hedges to The Rt. Hon Elin Jones MS, Y Llywydd (Presiding Officer of the Senedd) and Chair of the Business Committee. This was copied to Lynne Neagle as Cabinet Secretary, and Dawn Bowden, Minister for Children and Social Care and also, “given the subject matter of the Bill,” to CYPEC Chair Buffy Williams.
The letter highlights the LJCC’s concerns about the Welsh Government’s Written Statement on the Children’s Wellbeing & Schools Bill. First it questions the lack of acknowledgement of “the need for the Welsh Government to seek the Senedd’s consent for provisions within the Senedd’s legislative competence being included in a UK Government Bill.”
It also raises the shortage of time for proper consideration of the issues, given that:
“the provision being made for Wales in the Bill covers significant policy matters but, with proceedings in the House of Commons complete, minimal time is being left for Senedd Committees to scrutinise the Welsh Government’s actions and the provisions for Wales being added to the Bill.”
Other items related to Agenda item 4.7 are correspondence for the Committee’s consideration from Home Ed Cymru and from Education Otherwise, the latter being accompanied by advice from David Wolfe KC. Both correspondents expressed concerns about The Children Act 2004 (Children Missing Education Database) (Pilot) (Wales) Regulations 2025 and about sections of the Children’s Wellbeing & Schools Bill being applied to Wales.
The documentation for Agenda item 8 (Legislative Consent: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill) was restricted “by virtue of paragraph(s) vi of Standing Order 17.42,” a generic statement about a matter still being a work in progress for the Committee:
“The committee is deliberating on the content, conclusions or recommendations of a report it proposes to publish; or is preparing itself to take evidence from any person.”
At the very end of the televised public section of the meeting, members were invited to be ‘content’ with all the Papers to Note as a group, and the meeting then proceeded in private. Consequently no further information is available in the public domain concerning Members’ views on these items.
• • • • •
Other matters to note
Two pages of interest can be found on the Ed Yourself site, the first being information and brief comment on the application of parts of the CWSB applying to Wales.
The second is a short article about the recently updated Home Education Guidance Wales 2025. The new version is currently displayed as a webpage and promises that a pdf download of the document will soon be available. EdYourself takes the view that the changes are not significant, but comments on several differences in the formatting.
And finally, on 20 March, Humanists UK featured an article reporting that the WG “pilot programme for the Children Missing Education (CME) database will commence next month,” with Wales Humanists Co-ordinator Kathy Riddick quoted as saying:
“Any new system should include an obligation for parents to register their children who are not in mainstream education, and include all children out of school on a permanent register just as with children attending schools,”
She went on to commend the Wales pilot for “assess[ing] whether children not in school are actually being educated,” before concluding:
“Better yet would be a UK-wide approach which would protect children who are moved across county or national borders. We have been calling for this change for over 10 years and are committed to support measures which safeguard children’s education.”
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